Counterfeits and Unauthorized Copies

Tuesday, 10 June 2014 07:03

For some reason the NYT continues to have problems distinguishing between the concept of a counterfeit item and an unauthorized copy. The confusion appears in a column by Yu Hua which uses the term "counterfeit" and "pirated" interchangeably.

The distinction between the two terms is simple and important. A counterfeit item is one where the seller misrepresented its origins to the consumer. In this case the consumer has been ripped off by the seller. By contrast, an unauthorized copy may violate a company's trademark or other intellectual property claim, but it doesn't involve a rip-off of the consumer.

This matters because consumers will presumably assist in cracking down on counterfeits, they are the victims in such cases. On the other hand they benefit from getting unauthorized copies. They are able to buy products at prices that are substantially less than the ones produced by the company's whose intellectual property claims are being violated.

Since this column does not distinguish clearly between the two, it's not possible to understand its complaint. It's not clear whether its common for people in China to order goods on the Internet and not receive the product they are expecting (if this is the case, presumably they would stop buying products on the Internet) or whether goods are being sold that violate intellectual property claims of various companies.